Max Westermaier

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Max Westermaier, around 1895

Max Westermaier (also: Maximilian Westermaier ; born May 6, 1852 in Kaufbeuren ; † May 1, 1903 in Freiburg im Üechtland , Switzerland ) was a German botanist .

Live and act

Max Westermaier was the fourth son of the royal Bavarian lawyer Joseph Westermaier and his wife Maria geb. Zimmermann born in Kaufbeuren. He attended the high school in Kempten . He studied chemistry, mineralogy and descriptive natural sciences at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich and at the technical university there and became an active member of the Catholic student association K.St.V. Ottonia Munich in the KV . In 1873 he passed his teaching degree. Professors Ludwig Radlkofer and Carl Wilhelm von Nägeli engaged the young scientist as a botany assistant and under the direction of the latter he completed his award-winning dissertation : The first cell divisions in the embryo of Capsella bursa pastoris .

In 1878 Max Westermaier went to Berlin to see Professor Simon Schwendener and supported him in setting up his new botanical institute; in 1879 he completed his habilitation. As a result, the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina in Halle (Saale) appointed him a member and after the death of Robert Caspary († 1887) he was provisionally appointed to his botany professorship at the University of Königsberg . However, due to his dedicated commitment to the Catholic Church and its representatives, he was not appointed professor. That is why Westermaier accepted a call to the Freising Lyceum in 1890 , but there was hardly any time left for scientific research.

In 1894 the Swiss Catholic politician Caspar Decurtins visited him there and offered him the botanical chair in the natural science faculty of the University of Friborg that was just emerging . Westermaier wanted to accept the offer, but the management of the Freising Lyceum tried to keep him in Bavaria with the support of Archbishop Antonius von Thoma . Decurtins finally intervened in Rome and got Cardinal State Secretary Mariano Rampolla del Tindaro to write to the Munich nuncio that it was Pope Leo XIII's declared wish . To appoint Max Westermaier to the Freiburg chair. Only then could he accept the offer and in September 1896 became the first professor of botany at the University of Freiburg (Uechtland). In September 1898, Professor Westermaier undertook a botanical study trip to Java , from where he returned in the spring of 1899 with a lot of valuable plant material for teaching and research.

Max Westermaier died on May 1, 1903 of a bowel obstruction . His previous assistant, Alfred Ursprung (1876–1952), took over the chair .

Appreciation

The University of Freiburg writes about the botanist:

“ He tried again and again to show that there can be no contradiction between scientific knowledge and belief in God, and through his personal life and work he gave an impressive testimony to Christianity. For this reason, Bishop François Charrière finally started the preparatory work for the beatification of Max Westermaier by the Catholic Church in 1948 . "

- Biographical website of the University of Freiburg / Uechtland, listed in the article under "Weblinks"

Westermaier found his final resting place in the Freiburg Jesuit Church of St. Michael , from where his bones were transferred to the crypt of the university chapel in 1969 and the inscription "Servus Dei" (Servant of God) was placed on the grave slab. The beatification process has not yet been initiated, but there is the "Association of the Friends of Max Westermaier" which is committed to this matter.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ German Botanical Society (ed.): Reports of the German Botanical Society , Volume 22, 1904, page 24; Excerpt from the source
  2. ^ Siegfried Koß, Wolfgang Löhr (Hrsg.): Biographisches Lexikon des KV. 6th part (= Revocatio historiae. Volume 7). SH-Verlag, Schernfeld 2000, ISBN 3-89498-097-4 , p. 99.
  3. ↑ Heinz Balmer: Alfred origin. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . February 19, 2013 , accessed July 7, 2019 .
  4. ^ Website of the University of Freiburg on the grave of Max Westermaier
personal data
SURNAME Westermaier, Max
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Westermaier, Maximilian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German botanist
DATE OF BIRTH May 6, 1852
PLACE OF BIRTH Kaufbeuren
DATE OF DEATH May 1, 1903
Place of death Freiburg in Üechtland